In Delhi, Developers Imperil Islamic Palace

From the narrow lanes of Delhi’s impoverished Nizamuddin Basti area, it’s almost impossible to see the “Lal Mahal,” or the Red Palace, which is one of India’s earliest Islamic royal dwellings.

In many cities, endowed with a lesser bounty of historic buildings, the Lal Mahal may have become a tourist draw. It was constructed in the mid-13th century of red sandstone by one of Delhi’s first sultans, a slave dynasty of Turkic origin that brought Islam to the region.

Its covered verandahs around a central domed chamber once looked out over the Jamuna River, now long receded. Indian-style dome-shaped pavilions, or “chhatris,” adorned its roof and grounds.

Ibn Battuta, the 14th century Moroccan traveler, mentions in his writings visiting a Lal Mahal in Delhi, which some scholars believe could be the same building.

Archaeological Survey of India

An archive picture of the Lal Mahal.

But in this city, where seemingly endless Islamic ruins sprout in the most unlikely places, crammed between modern apartments and sometimes used for rearing animals, the future of the building appears bleak.

The Lal Mahal’s demise has occurred over centuries, leaving only the central chamber and one surviving chhatri.

A number of modern buildings, including the multi-story headquarters of the Tablighi Jamaat, the conservative Islamist organization, tower over the palace from three sides.

Until last month, visitors could view the building from across a narrow piece of scrubland that bordered a small lane in this chaotic Islamic ghetto, once a village, that is popular with foreign tourists for its Sufi shrine and “qawwali”music performances.

In late May, a construction team began setting up on the piece of land. Laborers put up high walls and a roof made of corrugated iron, effectively hemming in the palace and blocking it from the road.

“We’re concerned that in the next four to five days the dome and arch might be damaged,” said Vikramjit Singh Rooprai, an IT consultant who runs a website that promotes the protection of Delhi’s monuments.

It wasn’t the first time construction crews have moved onto the land. In 2008, workers pulled down a two-story chhatri that stood there, a little apart from the main palace.

Conservationists were outraged. The palace was among the earliest Islamic buildings to fuse true domes and arches – a cultural import from Iran via Central Asia – with chhatris, an indigenous Indian architectural style.

Stories appeared in local newspapers and blogs. Delhi’s minister of culture ordered the Archaeological Survey of India to look into how the destruction could have occurred. Police ordered an end to construction and – for over four years – there was no further activity.

But the building’s situation has remained precarious, because of legal loopholes and administrative inaction that have imperiled the future of much of New Delhi’s cultural heritage.

The British set up the ASI in the mid-19th century to catalogue and conserve thousands of monuments across the country. Under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958, the ASI has the power to protect and manage 3,650 listed sites in India, of which 174 are in Delhi.

The list has hardly changed in over a century and the Lal Mahal, along with over a thousand other important buildings, does not feature on it. The Delhi government’s Department of Archaeology also protects a handful of buildings, and plans to add more, but its list also does not currently include the palace.

In the early 20th century, an ASI official called Zafar Hasan compiled a list of around 1,300 buildings of importance in Delhi. The British government was then in the process of building New Delhi, its planned capital to the south of the 17th century Mughal walled city, or what is now known as Old Delhi.

The area was mainly rural but was sprinkled with Islamic and Hindu sites dating back over 800 years and authorities wanted to ensure edifices of note were not razed.

At the time, Nizamuddin village was essentially a rural graveyard tended by a handful of families claiming to be descendants of a Sufi saint, Nizamuddin Auliya, who is buried there and still revered today. Nearby is the tomb of the Mughal emperor, Humayun, one of the city’s most well-maintained monuments.

Mr. Hasan found the Lal Mahal “much dilapidated” and “at present in occupation by villagers.” He recommended the palace be protected under the ASI’s list but that did not occur.

Today, the village and an affluent adjacent enclave called Nizamuddin West are in the heart of Delhi, a throbbing city of some 17 million. Muslim families, fleeing Hindu mobs during Partition in 1947, took refuge in the village, swelling its numbers.

The international growth of Tablighi Jamaat, which draws adherents from across the world to its expanding headquarters, has added to the crowding. These followers frown on Nizamuddin’s Sufi traditions, creating tension in the area.

The history of the Lal Mahal is hazy. Old black-and-white photos, seemingly from before Partition, show its verandahs blocked up with bricks to make living quarters.

The family who currently claim ownership of the palace has constructed a block of shops next door.

“We have been living here for many generations,” said a man who identified himself as Faisal and who said his family owned the building. “I haven’t done anything wrong. I am not running away.” He declined to comment further.

Many people who live in the area, like other residents of Delhi’s crumbling ghettos, including Old Delhi, often lack official land-ownership documents, authorities say.

The identity of the current developer of the scrubland next to the Lal Mahal – and how they came into possession of the land – is not clear. It’s also unclear whether the current developer was the same one that pulled down the two-story chhatri in 2008.

Attempts to reach the commissioner and deputy commissioner of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation, the city authority that is charged with controlling building permits in the area, were not successful.

On a recent visit, the area inside the corrugated iron enclosure appeared to be in preparation for the laying of foundations. A local man wearing a Muslim prayer cap who was standing on the lane outside described the site as a mosque.

Attempts to locate the developer were not successful.

The renewed building activity has again begun to generate media coverage. The ASI – India’s archaeological-protection body, which is under the Ministry of Culture – is hoping to use a similar tactic it employed in 2008 to get around the Lal Mahal’s non-protected status.

Back then, it filed a police complaint seeking to block the construction work because it fell within 100 meters of another ASI-protected monument. Under the 1958 act, no buildings should be constructed within such a radius, although the rule is widely flouted.

This year, the ASI wrote on June 11 to the South Delhi Municipal Corporation asking them to enforce a halt to construction, citing the 100-meter rule, said Vasant Swarkar, a senior official at ASI’s Delhi office.

Raj Kumar, a junior engineer in the building department of the corporation, acknowledged receipt of the letter. Mr. Kumar said he had visited the site and taken photos but declined to comment further.

A. G. Krishna Menon, who heads the Delhi office of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage, an Indian non-profit organization, said his group is planning to file a public-interest petition with the Supreme Court if authorities don’t take action within days.

The petition will ask the court to order the government to protect the Lal Mahal and to consider expanding its list of protected monuments, he said.

Indian authorities, he added, should aggressively remove all dwellings from areas around protected monuments.

“We have laws. But how are they implemented? Are they implemented at all?” he said.

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